Soil Pipe

needamemory

Hello, I am unsure which forum would be best for my question. I have recently moved and found a number of problems I was unaware of (despite a full survey). One of these is that I have a small patio garden with a small shed and have discovered that the my neighbour's wall (which is at the side of my patio garden) has a soil pipe protruding about a foot above ground level from their wall into my garden, it then curves and is buried in my garden, presumably it connects up with a sewer pipe somewhere. My first query is if there was a problem with this pipe who would be responsible for any necessary repairs and the second (from my point of view far worse) is that I have rats which appear to be coming from the soil pipe and are using the small gap behind the shed to take food or nest. I am waiting for a pest control operative but if this is to be a continuing problem, is it always my responsibility to pay for their removal?

With thanks.

Doozergirl

If it's proper drains and a shared sewer, then the water company are responsible.

But I don't then understand how rats are coming out of it as it should be a sealed system.

A picture might be good, but it sounds like it could just be a pipe to allow water to escape to prevent build up of pressure behind a retaining wall?

needamemory

Thankyou, I will take a picture today. The area around the soil pipe and behind the shed is always very damp and when I have seen a rat it appears to run towards the shed and then disappears, it may be that it is underneath the shed.